I just ran a 50 lap race at Daytona oval with the new NASCAR cars. (Max AI Difficulty & 4x tire wear) I did not make any upgrades to the car and used the default tune. Despite AI adjustments mentioned in the most recent patch notes, the experience was very disappointing. I easily won the race with all AI cars at least 1 lap down.
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AI Cars no longer rear-end you in corners as mentioned in the patch notes, now they just slam on the brakes and stack up the cars behind them. They won’t overtake in the turns outside the preferred line, even at Daytona where there is 2-3 viable racing lines. I even tried slowing from 195mph to 170mph in the turns and AI cars will still brake to avoid hitting you rather than overtake.
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AI will attempt to overtake on a straight away, but if you make even the slightest block attempt they will hit the brakes and stack up with the cars behind them.
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AI cars still brake and pulse the throttle in the turns when it is completely unnecessary. Their steering input is also sometimes very erratic.
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AI Pit Entry/Exit is still awful, they slam on the brakes at the last second, and then re-enter the track immediately after the pit. AI cars also seem to accelerate instantly on pit exit which is odd. Apparently rather than fix it, they just made the AI cars ghost mode on pit entry/exit according to the patch notes.
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With 4x tire wear on a 50 lap race, only 1 pit stop was required. However, most AI cars did 3 or 4 pit stops for some reason. I’m assuming AI cars pit with even the slightest tire wear.
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AI cars are on rails. It is impossible to ‘pit-maneuver’ or spin an AI car, however they can spin your car with ease. Not being able to bump or spin an AI car when oval racing just feels weird.
I know FM isn’t a “Nascar game” but I’ve been playing Nascar racing games for over 25 years. The AI in this game is worse than Nascar games I played 20-25 years ago. It’s hard to believe with all the advancements in AI technology in recent years, that this is the current state of AI in FM.